When we talk about affordable housing, it's easy to get tangled in a debate over what and how much the government should do about the crisis. It can help, and I've proposed a package of measures that, taken together, will create new housing opportunities for many struggling Californians.

As Mayor de Blasio shared his vision for expanding New York City's affordable housing stock, many of us who have been involved in advocating for better housing conditions for the poor wondered, "affordable for whom?"

On the anniversary of King's birth, I can't help but think how disappointed he would be if he were alive to see how hard it is to build affordable housing in affluent, mostly white communities, thereby precluding many blacks from living in places with good schools and job opportunities.

Residential segregation is often sustained by metropolitan transportation systems that contribute to the segregated housing patterns, particularly in older cities. HUD may soon inadvertently help communities strengthen these barriers.

Our solution is to move Habitat for Humanity to a manufacturer of modular homes that streamlines the building process through employed labor, bringing economic development and jobs to those at the base of the economic pyramid.

The lack of access to decent houses impacts more than 1.6 billion people -- holding each other hand-in-hand, it represents the equivalent to the circumference of 60 Earth-sized planets -- is not even a UN Millennium goal!

I took a walk through the construction site at the nefarious Ford Hotel with two former residents, Abraham and Travelle. They spent their childhood in the well-documented hellhole, witnessing life at the bottom rung of capitalism.